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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

I am so jealous....

39 replies

crispyduck · 08/03/2007 22:11

of you b feeders...I tried but failed on 3 ocassions...would like to try for another baby...what is your secret, your tips?
Thanks

OP posts:
bluejelly · 08/03/2007 22:14

I would've given up after ten days if it hadn't been for La Leche League. I thought the latch was fine ( everyone told me it was) but it so wasn't, had awful blisters which miraculously disappeared once the LLL lady had corrected my latch.
After that it was easy!
Good luck next time

bethoo · 08/03/2007 22:18

perserverence! my mw says it may be natural but it is not easy. i have a 10 day old baby and i am b/f though i can see why it is tempting to switch to bottle as he seems to be constantly latched on but there is no better feeling and vision than seeing him stuck on there! never thought i would ever say taht1 never thought i would have babies!

stressteddy · 08/03/2007 22:21

My advice would be to let baba have it as often and for as long as they like. terrible when very sore but I found it was the only way. The more they suck the more milk comes in. Having got through the first few weeks of pain it was lovely though

berolina · 08/03/2007 22:21

Don't be sad. It is certainly not as easy as I thought it would be. In fact, I spent the first 4 weeks reluctantly mixed feeling before finally managing to go to excl bf. My top tips:

  • Do not assume that health care professionals know about bf. (They might, but they very well might not...) Any advice to give formula should be checked out carefully before following it.
  • The constant feeding, no routine thing is normal and often necessary (for building up supply) - get as much support as you can with house and childcare, and learn to feed in a sling.
  • Expressing is not a guide as to how much the baby is getting. Nappies (soaking wet? yellow poos?) give a better picture. In almost all cases you can trust your body to make enough milk.
With patience and perseverance, breast refusal (if it happens) can be overcome.
  • The most important one: If in doubt, ask MN , look at kellymom.com and/or contact a bf counsellor or helpline.
berolina · 08/03/2007 22:21

mixed feeding (although there were quite a few mixed feelings in those weeks...)

hunkermunker · 08/03/2007 22:24

Aw, sweetheart

Why didn't it work for you? What has your experience been so far?

hairymclary · 08/03/2007 22:27

me too crispyduck. ds was rather anti-boob, i expressed for months but it isn't the same as breastfeeding.

I am now pg again and shit-scared of it ending up the same

skibump · 08/03/2007 22:28

About 10 weeks of mixed feeding before my body finally made enough milk for excl bfeeding. I know everyone says your body will make enough, but it's just not always true

FrannyandZooey · 08/03/2007 22:30

Crispyduck I put a lot of my success down to having utter confidence that I could do it

and I put that down to having spent a lot of time watching other women (or just being around other women) breastfeeding.

I know that is simplistic and that it would not solve a lot of the breastfeeding problems that I have heard of. But my god it definitely helps.

lemonaid · 08/03/2007 22:33

What were the problems you had before, how did you try to tackle them and what support did you get?

jollyfolly · 08/03/2007 22:39

I would have been heart broken if i was not able to bf so big sympathies for you...... i was ridiculously lucky and ds seemed to have it sorted from word go. That said the first two weeks were still hard and i did get sore nipples but i guess only for a few days. The only thing i can recommend is breast feed at the earliest opportunity after they are born.... ds latched on minutes after he poped out and never looked back.
Good luck!!!!!

Original poster
crispyduck · 08/03/2007 22:40

Thanks everyone...had 2 c sections and couldn't produce milk, tried to express for hours and cried constantly as not even a thimble full come out...ds was constantly hungry......is this a common problem after c sections, so midwife told me

OP posts:
hunkermunker · 08/03/2007 22:41

Franny, same here - I read when I was pg that women often "failed" because they said they'd "try to bfeed". Can't remember where I read it, but it also said that if you said you "would bfeed" you were more likely to. I read it just before my booking-in appointment so when the midwife said "how will you be feeding?" - oh, no, hang on, I said "with the placenta for a good while yet, I hope!"

hunkermunker · 08/03/2007 22:44

Crispyduck, how were you expressing? If you were using a pump (esp a big hospital electric pump) I'm not surprised you weren't producing anything - I tried one after DS2 was born and it made my nipples longer rhythmically, but did nothing for getting anything out of me. I hand expressed into a sterile wide syringe and squirted it into DS2's mouth (he had low blood sugar issues, so needed extra)

Yes, after a section, milk can sometimes be a bit slower to come in, but largely (I think) it's because in general women don't do as much skin-to-skin, find it harder to get their babies, etc, etc when they're in hospital.

Original poster
crispyduck · 08/03/2007 22:45

The latching on was fine..how do I encourage milk production

OP posts:
hairymclary · 08/03/2007 22:45

Doesn't always help though. I was convinced I would bf ds. He just wasn't interested at all, no matter how much I persevered.

crispyduck, as I said before, I ended up expressing for yonks and at first you do hardly get anything out because it's just the colostrum. MW said I was doing well to get 3ml out the first time LOL.

hunkermunker · 08/03/2007 22:47

CD, who said you weren't producing anything?

How long did you try for?

Did you rely solely on expressing to tell you you weren't producing anything?

(And fellow HM, I know it's not the only thing that will help you succeed - I was coming back to the thread to clarify that I didn't believe that only people who wanted to bfeed would manage it)

hairymclary · 08/03/2007 22:50

what crispyduck and myself need is a baby to practice on before ours are born lol

shonaspurtle · 08/03/2007 22:50

crispyduck - I would see a bf counsellor while you were pg to talk about what went wrong before and how you could manage/avoid them.

Things I've learned (all been mentioned I think)

  • It doesn't necessarily come naturally to you or your baby so ther's a learning curve for both of you.
  • mw, hv, gp don't assume any of them will know anything about bf
  • Inability to express milk doesn't necessarily equal no/not enough milk
  • Milk doesn't come in for a few days and the baby can manage on a tiny bit of colostrum until then. It's amazing how little is enough!
  • Seeing a bf counsellor face to face is so worth it and is the only reason I'm still bf
  • It gets easier as they and their mouths get bigger so if you find it really tricky in the first weeks don't think it will always be this way
Original poster
crispyduck · 08/03/2007 22:50

Hunker munker - hospital did not advise breastpump, they advised manual expressing, which I did receive support and help...one of the midwives tried to manual express my boobs whi8ch were so sore for me...her comment was "OMG this hard work"

OP posts:
lemonaid · 08/03/2007 22:50

I had a c/s and didn't worry about expressing, just latched DS on a lot (which was a bit tricky because he didn't appear to have a rooting reflex). He did seem to feed pretty much constantly, but the side-effect of that was that I didn't even notice when my milk came in because there wasn't a dramatic change from the colostrum days.

How often were you latching them on (as opposed to trying to express) in the early days? And how long were they suckling for each time?

lemonaid · 08/03/2007 22:54

I can't quite pick up from your posts (probably me being dense) why you were expressing at all. If the latch was OK, and your breasts were getting engorged, then why not just latch the baby on?

hunkermunker · 08/03/2007 22:55

Crispyduck, some women can't express a drop, nor do they leak milk ever, but manage to bfeed their babies (and in some instances to toddler age).

HM, you're welcome to borrow DS2 for a bit, but he's 13mo and...well, I'd have been scared if I'd had to bfeed a 13mo from a cold start!

Lact8 · 08/03/2007 22:58

I agree with Franny. I was lucky in that my mum bf my brother and I and I didn't know anyone with babies before I had DS1 so I'd never been around anyone giving a baby a bottle and thought of breastfeeding as the normal way of doing things. So when I was pregnant at 19 I decided (with the confidence/ignorance of the young!) that I would breastfeed too. I just didn't doubt that I would be able to do it. I also wasn't aware that it may be difficult to do either and I'm sure that ignorance helped me too

To encourage milk production allow the baby to feed as much as they want. Don't feel bad about not being able to express just after a c section! I've found that I need to be very relaxed and tucked up warm in bed to express and can't imagine that I would've been able to do it after having a major operatiopn!

The one thing I remembered my mum saying was 'everytime your brother cried, I fed him' I adopted the same strategy and it worked for me

hairymclary · 08/03/2007 22:58

haha yes, not sure that would really work. can't you have a newborn for me to try on ?